Federal election 2025: ALP on the brink as Victorian voters go Green with rage in Bob Hawke’s seat

Labor is on the brink of losing Bob Hawke’s old seat of Wills in inner-Melbourne to the Greens over a Gaza and renter-led backlash in this Saturday’s Federal election.

A senior Labor source told The Nightly the Government was facing a fierce backlash over the war in Gaza, with voters set to take out their anger on the sitting member Peter Khalil.

They feared the seat was unlikely to hold on Saturday when the country heads to the polls.

Separately, a senior Victorian Labor source said of Mr Khalil’s battle: “He’s fighting for his life.”

Kos Samaras, the Labor Party’s former deputy campaign director in Victoria and co-founder of the apolitical research firm RedBridge said Wills could easily be lost in the current political climate.

“Based on our nationwide assessment and the growth of support of the Greens amongst Gen Z, you cannot rule out the Greens winning a seat like Wills,” he said.

Mr Khalil did not respond to The Nightly’s repeated requests for comment.

But in further signs of the intense battle he is fighting, he recently recruited former Prime Minister Julia Gillard to film a video message urging voters to back him.

Other social media posts show there has been a blitz of some of the Federal cabinet’s most high-profile and popular figures, including Sydney MP and cabinet minister Tanya Plibersek.

Wills was held by Labor’s longest-serving post-war Prime Minister Bob Hawke. It was briefly held by an independent after Paul Keating became leader but returned to Labor’s hands in 1996. It has been held by Mr Khalil since 2016.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese holds government with just a three-seat majority and is fighting to retain power this weekend.

He wants a majority but needs to gain seats to offset the near-certain losses of Gilmore in New South Wales and Aston in Victoria along with the abolition of Higgins.

Mr Albanese is hoping wins in Queensland will compensate and campaigned in the LNP-held seat of Bonnor on Tuesday — his second visit to the seat this campaign.

By contrast, he campaigned with Mr Khalil at a pharmacy on the morning US President Donald Trump announced his sweeping tariffs, but has not been back to the electorate since.

Data on Google shows the party has poured a whopping $216,000 into the seat in the last month. The Greens have poured $300,000 into the seat funding on advertising and physical signage.

This is about five times the amount channelled into the New South Wales regional seat of Richmond, where the sitting Labor frontbencher Justine Elliot is also facing a Greens threat, although Labor is more confident of holding onto the seat.

Meanwhile the Greens said their ground game in Wills had swelled by one thousand per cent since the last election, with 700 volunteers knocking on 8000 doors in 2022 compared to 90,000 this election, with still three days to go.

In a sign of the Greens growing confidence at taking out a sitting Labor MP, Leader Adam Bandt will be appearing at a Brewery in Brunswick East to launch their campaign targeting the seat with the candidate Samantha Ratnam.

Ms Ratman first contested the seat in 2016 and is a former local councillor and mayor but most recently the Greens State leader and member of the Legislative Council.

Mr Albanese has said he will not do deals with the Greens to form government if voters return a hung parliament.

But pressed at the National Press Club about relying on the Greens for supply, the prime minister evaded the question.

“We’re the only political party that’s trying to form majority government,” he said.

Mr Khalil was already facing an uphill battle with the redistribution of the seat making it more Green-leaning, reducing his 8.6 per cent margin to 4.6 per cent.”

At the last election, Mr Khalil suffered a 5.4 per cent swing against him and the Greens received a 2 per cent swing.

Labor insiders say the belief that the party will retain government, even in minority, is fuelling the Greens campaign and a “cake and eat it too’” mentality with voters wanted to send Labor a protest vote.

Left-leaning voters are thinking they could vote Mr Khalil out but feel safe that they will still end up with Anthony Albanese and not Peter Dutton as Prime Minister as the Greens’ lines of “send Labor a message” and “if you’re disappointed in Labor but don’t want Dutton Vote Greens” are said to be resonating.